Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.
It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.
My Thoughts:
Mind is blown.
I didn’t think Levithan could handle the subject and concept of love any better than he did in Boy Meets Boy and The Realm of Possibility. But he did.
It’s interesting that the book’s description claims A is a “he,” when, in fact, A is, in a way, an ambiguous narrator. It’s a tricky, touchy structural aspect, but works rather seamlessly; I never got caught up or confused about A’s gender. A simply existed to me, and the way the plot carries on allowed me to trust this style of narration.
As far as characters go, A is consistent. Although waking up in another person’s body every day, A manages to maintain “his” own personality while also putting forth each person’s personalities as well. Some are more interesting than others, but they’re all their own persons, and there’s always something to be learned from them. Rhiannon is a more predictable character, but not unlikeable; she complements A really well. If anything, I would’ve preferred to learn more about her on a personal level; I wasn’t satisfied with the majority of the information about her being gathered by A, because A is often too preoccupied with her beauty.
Every Day is a love-at-first-sight kind of story, testing every internal and external struggle a relationship can withstand. It’s not always cute, and it’s not always upsetting. It’s wholesome. It’s about having hope and doing what it takes to be with the one you love, no matter their appearance. There’s a lot to be taken from this story, a lot that needs to sink in. While it reads easily, the words eventually stick together, clogging your thoughts, making you think.
In the midst of this beauty is a darker side, though. One that I wasn’t expecting. For me, it’s a bit too out of place, and left me unsatisfied with the ending. I needed more information.
But Levithan’s writing is the star in all of this. It’s so emotional, so raw, so real, so touching. Even when he’s being blunt, he’s caring.
Every Day is a mishmash of What ifs and everything that’s wrong and right in the world; it’s a story that encompasses so much more than this one life.